Reflection is the ability of a program to see itself. ABAP has a series of reflective capabilities, such as RTTS or the ability to dynamically generate code. There are also a few other so-and-so functions that do this and that. Today I present one of them to you:

GET_GLOBAL_SYMBOLS

This function returns an internal table with the list of all the variables used in a particular program. It couldn’t be easier to use:

DATA: t_fieldlist TYPE STANDARD TABLE OF rfieldlist.

CALL FUNCTION 'GET_GLOBAL_SYMBOLS'
  EXPORTING
    program      = sy-repid
*   NAME_PATTERN = '*'
  TABLES
    fieldlist    = t_fieldlist.

The function populates the T_FIELDLIST internal table with 16 records, when running: 15 system variables and the T_FIELDLIST proper. If there were more variables declared in the program and more records they would appear there.

Thank you Nuno Morais for showing me this function.

And a very special thank you to Caravaggio for painting the picture that illustrates this text (Unfortunately, I had to cut off a bit at the top and bottom for it to fit. Anyway … removing bits is no greater crime than reducing it to 150x150 pixels. Well, we can live with it.)

Greetings from Abapinho.